DaptoFunlandGuy

Interestingly, the gofundme is still live this morning (almost 24 hours after the announcement), and the last fund update on the fundraiser was the end of January. They didn't actually reach $1000 - just slightly less at $930, but that's with Golden Years chipping in $200 (they were the last recorded donation - on the 7th of February, which is odd given the campaign ran for 4 weeks total, and note also that Golden Years' donation is marked as 'offline' meaning they didn't actually put their money up - offline donations don't run through the gofundme system, so its an 'on paper' donation only. While never made public, judging by social media posts it seems like perhaps discussion had been raised about housing the koala(s) at the longhurst museum \ garage just around the back of Dreamworld. That in itself is folly, given the distaste the longhurst's reportedly have for Dreamworld these days. @Slick this might need splitting now...

Especially since it's north facing, it cops the full sun all day.

Ahhhh, those were the days of the Aussie Coaster Forum Wars. When good vs. evil, Roller Coaster vs. Dreamneva mate vs. mate and state vs. state reigned! After that we were separated into 13 districts. President Wilson decreed no more war. And in return we offered up Roach as a tribute to be sacrificed into the enclave of community leaders so that others could live. I was invited to, and did the shoot, on behalf of DreamNova. I didn't have to run around for permission, just called the number and they gave me a date I could come down. Of course, as we know, the DN site never really launched, but this was meant to be one of the first big articles. As time went on I shared it on R-C, ensured you could still see the picture, while obscuring enough of it that there was no way it could be appropriated by others. The original is actually shot on old school film negative, and if i ever find it, i'll be sure to get it reproduced without it, along with all my other shots of that day.

Agree. If the ride you're bringing in is similar in design, or similar in operation, recycling an existing name is good, pays homage, etc etc. But for non-enthusiasts, imagine visiting a park you haven't been to since your childhood, seeing that 'the tumble bug' is still in the park, and heading to the spot it says on the map, and finding something completely different? It's like calling the 360 'the rotor'. No - names should be reborn only if the ride, experience, and design are close enough that you could call it a direct replacement, even if they aren't identical. ...Like the wipeout at Seaworld.

I think you mean 'recreation park' ? Jamberoo Action Park is their current iteration - as seen by the title on the plans shown above^ I was lucky enough to visit the park in the late 80s \ early 90s. First up - a slight correction - the go karts were 'up the hill' from the entrance (ie - to the left) and were in the area now occupied by the splashdown pools of perfect storm, funnel web and Banjo's: As you can see, the gokarts co-existed with the wavepool for quite some time. The wavepool was built on the site of the old motorboat 'lake' which wasn't much more than a circular cattle dam. The rear of the wavepool (the north eastern edge) was also home to the lattice maze - opposite and 'down the hill' from The Rock. Rapid River was at one point a large group of huts \ shelters, housing about 20 picnic tables each with BBQs at the ends, bookable by large groups (similar to what is on the northern side of Taipan today). Surf Hill and the top end of taipan were grass-skiing hills. The brick building somewhat resembling a ski lodge next to rapid river has always been there, and originally was the grass ski hiring area, and a restaurant we never, ever went into. As for plans, wayyyyy back when - more than 15 years ago, I visited the park as a photographer \ guest of the park, and shot some awesome pics mostly lost to time now. I did however meet with Dax in their boardroom, where they showed me the plans and concept art for their master plan at that point. Thank goodness for the parkz forums archive, you all can enjoy some 2006 goodness and marvel at how much has been changed! (also, tagging @Slickfor the lolz.) ETA - here is the original post on Parkz - https://www.parkz.com.au/forums/topic/2701-article-jamberoo-unveils-20-million-investment-plan/?do=findComment&comment=39136

honestly that says more about how cheap the GC passes are, than how expensive sydney is (although sydney IS expensive). That said, the GC has the established market and passholders make up quantities that the Sydney park simply can't accommodate. WnWS was regularly hitting its capacity early on - and pissing off a lot of passholders who were denied entry. With capacity that low, you need to make more off of each ticket to remain profitable.

I'm sorry. I guess using '2nd gate' implies the same property \ right next door, which wasn't my intention. I've always viewed (and I know others have too) that Palace\Parques bought into WnWS as a cheap, established buy into a new market, with a view to expansion. I don't necessarily think they'd build right next door necessarily, but its a big step and a long way away from other properties they have if they never intended to expand.

Thanks Jobe. To be clear, I haven't heard anything. I said "if" covid hadn't happened, I feel we'd have heard whispers. But covid happened, and i've heard nothing... ...i can't smell anything either...

WnWS\RWS is about the same driving time from Sydney Airport as Six Flags Magic Mountain is from LAX. Wonderland saw regular tourist coaches visiting for day trips, and Scenic World Katoomba - more than twice the driving time - regularly attracts bus tours, day trips and so on. Distance is not a factor - although it would have been wise to push on with a second (dry) gate to make the spot a destination. The fact it was sold to another company doesn't immediately illustrate it as a failure (the fact it was purchased indicates someone thought it had success potential, and village was over leveraged and under capitalised at the time - they needed to free up their bank balance - hence why they sold their oxenford land, WnWS, leased rivals, engaged with buyout offers, etc etc.). The Sydney market has great capacity to sustain theme parks. Wonderland operated for 19 years. Luna Park has had several incarnations and is in the midst of transforming into a new, modern era. Heck, Disney has explored Sydney as an option numerous times, and got really close to breaking ground once too (check out Disney Wharf on YouTube). Your claims WnWS wasn't financially viable don't make out - otherwise Palace wouldn't have purchased and continued to operate it. Villages problems weren't because of WnWS, but they did exacerbate it. Village went into the sydney market with the wrong attitude. They tried to introduce things we'd never seen at the gold coast parks - like RFID bands, paid parking etc - AND they cut costs on everything. Go and look at the concepts for WnW Aussie World, go and find the original WnWS plans, and then look at the concrete jungle we ended up with. The place just wasn't a nice place to visit. And the tower designs - fitting as many slides as they could on one tower - meant queueing was a disaster. Couple that with Village's launch plans - the failed New Years' Eve party in its first season fell devastatingly short of a professional operation, and this immediately soured many local's opinions. If Covid hadn't have come along, I feel strongly we'd have seen early whispers of Palace \ Parques exploring second gate options. Covid has now stuck a pin in that, so it's probably going to be a long time before we see additional development - but that still doesn't point to failure, as the park still continues to operate. Sydney's poor performance with theme parks stems from poor operators, rather than a poor geographical location. You could stick a halfway decent operator in Lithgow, and it'd still be popular. The problem is most definitely not the location or the population.

^but... but.... the temporary one was mounted on a truck trailer! that extra metre isn't real! *cries in vrtp*

Seller has asked $8k for one, (and as I mentioned would do the entire set for about $60k). Those organising this fundraiser have summarily tacked on an extra $2k as an estimate to ship a very large, delicate and heavy animatronic from South Australia to the gold coast, and then completely refurbish it. I'd tell you who I think is having a laugh, but that'd break the forum rules.

Don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya my boy. There were only two comments relating to that fundraiser. One of them was mine, and I specifically did not give detail - I'm not bagging the efforts, I'm simply calling it the way I see it. The whole premise is a pipe dream. There's no detail on where these will be set up, whether they actually work, what their current condition is, who will "own" them, how maintenance and upkeep will be handled, and so on. I won't defend Brad's comments, but I do agree with his assessment of the exercise. I'm an admin of the Wonderland History group. The group, at one point, crowdfunded to purchase the rollercoaster trains. They formed a committee and registered a non profit organisation to be responsible for this and it still fell apart. Per above, there was no detail on where they'd go, and who would be responsible for them. Transporting them was additional costs, and after moving them several times, at great (unfunded) expense, they've found a home where someone was willing to look after and maintain them, but still, not an ideal outcome compared to the intention at the time they were funded. I didn't participate in the funding and had no involvement in their acquisition or movement. I think its great they're still around, and one day I hope they get to 'coast' again in the way the current landowner intends to run them - but having seen the headaches caused by this, I know the dangers that are there. This koala thing is scant on detail. Those raising funds have done nothing to either shield themselves from potential issues (such as establishing a separate vehicle to be the owner of the machinery), nor protect the investment of the folks who have pledged should things go wrong. It is a simple comparison to many other "they should bring it back" arguments for many long lost theme park attractions. I'd love them to bring back Gremlins, and Young Einstein, and police academy. But the past is in the past. At $1000, its a cool little piece of memorabilia for a dedicated fan of the park. At $10k, its an expensive piece of scrap metal looking for a home. Despite numerous pieces of media, Dreamworld hasn't stepped forward to offer them a home. Theres very little other option, save perhaps for a prop in a mini golf centre, where this would realistically find a forever home - and no matter where it does end up, there is no guarantee that the owner will keep it there for any length of time. The pricetag is going on a sight-unseen purchase of something that was last photographed around ten years ago (I know people who have spoken to the agent selling them too) - heck, the current owner of them isn't even willing to open the shipping container they are stored in until he has a 'serious' buyer ready to make a deal. The estimate of $2k to both transport, and restore is woefully inadequate, and in reality you could probably get something similar built for the same or less than what the current owner is asking. Folly is a pretty apt description. However, again, my purpose in mentioning this thing in the first place was to draw similarities to those who say 'bring back xx nostalgic thing from my childhood that was closed due to lack of interest because I think its a good idea, regardless of the financial cost or current demographic interest. In summary, Fox Studios closed because it wasn't really all that good, and no, they shouldn't bring it back. I believe the owner would do a bulk discount, and the figures i've heard suggest the entire collection could be had for around $60k - however that is with unspecified condition, most of them not working and much of the latex and other parts needing complete replacement. So you'd probably need your extra $40k to cobble together some sort of refurbishment to make it worth your while (otherwise i'm sure their current condition would be perfectly suited to a fright nights maze somewhere).

this line is not in touch with reality. Its why a $10k fundraiser to buy a 30 year old animatronic only has $680 several weeks on. It's why a proposal to rebuild a now demolished theme park in Sydney hasn't gotten past the 'dreamer' phase. And it's why Fox Studios operates well as a studio, and not very well as a theme park. All of these concepts have by now far outlived their use-by date. All of these are now since long gone due to a number of factors, but nostalgia always views these long-since-closed places with fondness - when the reality is they all closed down mainly due to a lack of patronage and a lack of interest.

^we call that 'doing an AndrewH' so its not uncommon, but is still rare. Leaving things that are nice to look at, that don't permit access to ride envelopes or the like is fine. Queue buildings that are abandoned may not be structurally sound however - and one day could just come right down. Disney has left several 'disused' items throughout some of their parks as theming or tribute to the old attractions, but always in such a way that they are guest safe, and totally inaccessible.

Cost vs. Benefit?

I've had a look around, and it doesn't seem like any particularly deep footings are needed - most of the installs seem to 'bolt on' to the ride slab, with their own support leg \ outriggers. No doubt the slab would need to be thicker \ reinforced etc, but even the 'worlds tallest' in orlando doesn't seem to have any significant excavation or drilling. The slab itself would need about 4 weeks curing time to reach max strength, but usually they can start loading them 11-14 days after the pour. If it is an outrigger \ bolt on situation, it should be very quick. *Pure speculation based on my own googling. I've no particular knowledge of this install or others, other than what i found online in a few minutes - clearly, this could be very wrong, and i'm quite happy to be corrected if someone has better information.

The best thing about woodies is the usually suspense building slow climb of the lift hill, and in this case, the slightly faster turn around at the top before the first big drop. There will be perfectly adequate time to enjoy a view west as you climb, south as you reach the top, west as you turn, and north right before you plummet. Its a great thing to distract nervous riders from the drop, and i think the views will be better from Leviathan than any steel coaster they could have put there. Honestly it blows my mind that since opening, the rivals backwards seats have actually gone UP in price, and while i've almost always seen someone riding backwards whilst waiting in line (and done it myself a couple times), but I do see backwards seats dispatching empty more often than not.

When their standards and attempts are so lackluster, any improvement is sung with praise.

^Spot on. Each carriage of the train is loaded onto one of these dollies so that they can be moved around (as they can't be moved on their rolling stock without a rail).As the pieces are made in the exact same fashion as the actual track, it also allows maintenance to set wheel tolerances before returning the train to the ride.

^thought that was a swear word around here?

Plus, hyping something already closed (rather than 'last chance to ride it' like tower of terror) is a pretty pathetic use of marketing. Better to let it die quietly and hype up your next attraction when you've got it locked in.

You are correct that the costs for Movie World to do so may be prohibitive, but as I said, for a small, regional park without the same maintenance requirements, this is a blockbuster essentially for the cost of the new systems, plus a few mil to acquire and a few mil to construct - far cheaper than building something this size brand new. Arkham is essentially greenfields capable - all the supports are on relatively flat, level ground, with the dugout for the dive next to the station. Anyone with the space would be able to acquire this cheaply. If the structure is sound, everything else is minimal to gain such a mammoth coaster.

Sea World determined their pirate ship was financially impractical to maintain, and yet it found new life in Victoria I believe. Vekoma SLCs are regarded similarly to Boomerangs. The Expo 88 Titan (Constructed in 1987) found new life at Wonderland as The Demon ('92-'04), Alabama Adventure as Zoomerang ('05-'11) and currently resides at Wonderla Park in Hyderabad as Recoil since 2016. That's 33 years old, and it's most recent relocation was at age 29. And in this particular case, the track isn't 'bolt together' pieces - but physically welded together on-site. I think that is the case with Arkham also - so it can be done. The problems with Arkham, as I understand them, involve a very costly and expensive control systems overhaul. Coupled with the new ride safety requirements for teardown maintenance, etc etc, it wasn't financially worth it for MW to continue to operate - however, in another jurisdiction where the requirements aren't so 'Australian', the control systems might be a really cheap cost to acquire - essentially - a brand new ride for some lucky small regional park. Just as Dreamworld relocated Cyclone from Luna Park for next to nothing, there are many parks over the world that might consider purchasing Arkham. It's not outside the realm of possible for it to happen. As @ATIpoints out, people are still building these things.

Bingo. The circled area is a concrete slab in the ATCO compound that is visible in the video. This image is dated November 6th 2020.